Understanding customer service becomes so much easier if we analyze it through the lens of human relationships. It wouldn’t be wrong to term one's partner, wife, husband, or lover as one’s customer, so to speak. We are always giving something or receiving something and our currency is love, care, and affection.
Of course, this doesn’t mean it’s all strictly economic. Such “trades” occur naturally because of our kinship with each other.
However, if we replace our loved ones with the government, we see a slightly different scenario play out. The relationship between the government and its citizens hinges not just on trust but also the express intent to give and take, primarily in the form of taxation from the citizens and the basic municipal responsibilities from the government.
When we are in an intimate relationship, we serve each other; we try to make one another happy and content. Similarly, in mature societies, the government and the people also develop a nice relationship, a bonding, in which they serve one another. The relationship becomes a symbiotic one.
But is it at all possible for citizens to build a symbiotic relationship with their government? Maybe, yes, when the gatekeepers of the government are humans with integrity and are willing to serve the people.
Satisfying the customer is paramount. We must be loyal, courteous, and true to those we serve.
Now, there are customers who buy their food, clothes, and other necessary goods by directly paying money from the market where the manufacturer may not be the direct sellers.
When we watch a TVC for toothpaste, we see that we are guided to squeeze out every last bit from the tube every time we brush our teeth. But if we just take one-fourth of what the commercial shows, it’s still good enough for daily use. The TV commercial always suggests that we use more, consume more than how much we need to.
Goading us, the customers, to spend more can in no way be good customer care. The example of Merck pharmaceutical’s former chief executive Henry Gadsden is worth citing here. Henry Gadsden told Fortune magazine that Merck would manufacture drugs not only for the sick but also for people in good health because that way he could “sell to everyone.” This ignited a boom in the food supplement industry.
Take mobile data plans as another example. You purchase a Tk300 4G bundle for one month
“without auto-renewal.” But before the month could end, your telecom operator sends another Tk300 bundle to your account without your permission.
In the above examples, there is no element of kinship. A kind of take-it-or-leave-it attitude is at play here.
This is not customer service.
Imagine you’re travelling to Chattogram and your flight is at 12:30pm. You reach the airport at 11:00am and are told that, due dense fog in the morning, there’s an enormous traffic and flight has now been scheduled at 1:30pm. Then you receive a text on your phone that your plane would take off at 2:00pm.
It’s 2:00pm and there’s still no news. The departure screens are still showing 12:30pm. The airline officials are roaming around on the floor and informing the passengers. Finally, the screens say the plane would fly at 3:00pm, but in reality the flight finally takes off at 4:00pm.
An unpardonable negligence in customer service and information, if anything.
Yes, accurate information is one of the most important aspects of customer service. When you purchase packaged or canned food items from the shelves, you would notice a long list of ingredients printed in a corner. However, to your surprise, the information is provided in the most unintelligible manner. The printing is so tiny that it would require a magnifying glass to even read them.
That reminds me of hand-written prescriptions given to patients by their physicians. Apart from the fact that doctors are of the opinion that they are doing a great favour by sacrificing a few minutes for their patients, their way of providing information is unacceptable.
Physicians these days are guided by the medical representatives engaged by pharmaceutical companies and not by medical ethics, there is a tendency to over-prescribe medication to patients. The patients, their customers, are being forced to consume amounts of drugs that they may not need for the ailment.
I refuse to call this practice good customer service.
In recent times, many sectors have been utilizing “relationships” as a means to serve the customers. Relationship management has come a long way in our country as well. Relationship managers evoke a sense of loyalty in the minds of their customers by serving them with empathy -- one of the most important aspects in customer service.
Customer service is an encyclopedic subject, one needs to dedicate a great deal of thinking to serve customers. However, to my mind, three aspects are very important while serving one’s customers: We must not cheat; we must provide proper information; and we must develop a close relationship with our customers.
Ekram Kabir is a story-teller, a yogi, and a communications professional.